1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a portable, retractable animal leash assembly, wherein said leash line is arranged on a wind-up spool mounted to rotate in a housing carried in the hand. The assembly includes a brake having brake activation means operable by the carrying hand to stop the portion of said leash line wound off the spool located outside the housing at a desired length and a brake lock mechanism being associated with the leash in the region of the brake to lock the leash in the position momentarily determined by the brake. The brake lock mechanism includes operating means separated from said brake activation, but both being arranged such that the used may operate them with one and the same hand, with the lock operating means being arranged behind the brake operating means when seen in the gripping direction of the carrying hand.
2. Prior Art
In a known leash assembly of this type as shown in German Utility Model Publication 78 28 193 the locking mechanism for the brake key is designed as a locking catch in a position which, when seen from the person using the leash, is arranged behind the brake key, which means that it is positioned between this key and the exit opening in the housing for the passage of the leash. The brake key as well as the brake key locking mechanism can be operated with the hand holding the housing. However, it is particularly disadvantageous that the locking mechanism for locking the pressed-down brake key must be moved towards the brake key, which means it must be moved against the gripping direction towards the ball of the thumb of the user's hand. The different kinds and directions of movement of the elements to be operated, namely the pressing-down of the brake key, on the one hand, and the pulling of the brake key locking mechanism, on the other, often lead to irritations with the using person about the function of the operating elements and impede the use of the lead with one hand only, particularly with the thumb of one hand. Such handling is impeded even further by the fact that in this structure the lock operating element comes to lie sunk behind the brake key. Beyond that, it has shown to be most unsatisfactory to have to release the locking of the brake key by activating the latter, since this releasing may also occur in the case of unintended activation. Also, the expenditure in manufacture is relatively large for a lock catch of the known design, particularly regarding the undercut for the catch tappet and for mounting the lock catch.
In another known leash assembly having a separate arrangement of the brake key and the brake key locking mechanism the operation elements are placed spaced to each other in areas of the housing which are unfavourable with regard to ergonomic aspects of the hand (see German Utility Model Publication 84 10 346). This leads to maloperations and malfunctions particularly under stress and thus in situations in which normally a particularly faultless and quick operation is required. In many cases the second hand must thus be used to safeguard correct operation which impedes quick action and safe handling in many a situation. German Utility Model 93 04 693 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,926 shows a leash assembly which has been improved with regard to one-hand-handling. By arranging two lateral handling elements the operation between the functional states is nevertheless impaired. Moreover, the mechanism of this assembly is rather expensive due to the relatively large number of component parts.